TV OD + Entertainment | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/series/tv-od+entertainment
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Dancing On Ice: Grace Dent's TV ODhttps://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/feb/04/dancing-on-ice-grace-dent
If you only watch one reality show this winter, Dancing On Ice has it all: tension, tears, camel-toes at teatime and Louis Spence<p>My love of <strong>Dancing On Ice</strong> (<em>Sun, 6.25pm, ITV1</em>) endures, unfathomably. Of all events to watch at "beginner" level, ice skating truly is the most tedious. There's a good reason skating rink spectator areas are full of mums on codeine checking Facebook. Bad skating is soul-depleting. Even when, like this series, it's pop tornado Chico on skates, in a satin yellow bomber jacket and snug-fit breeks, livening up his wobbling with a nifty hand jive and a "Who? Meee? Gerroutofhere!" mime pre-amble. Even when it's Big Mo off EastEnders, skidding about, temporarily liberated from the Square. Amateur skating is just televised "walking gingerly", and if you want to watch that go to River Island shoe dept on a Saturday and see big-footed women trying on size 4 120mm heel pumps.</p><p>Yet despite a strict rehab plan to get clean of reality TV toxins, Dancing On Ice has stayed on my planner. The tension, the tears, the camel-toes, the fact it's on just before Wild At Heart, which I still watch in the small hope that Stephen Tompkinson will be eaten by a lion. The vast unfairness of pitting 18-year-old ballet shape-throwing ex-Hollyoaks star Jorgie Porter against Kirk Sutherland from Corrie, a man who hasn't managed to make three different shapes with his own mouth in the past decade; this is why Dancing On Ice lives on in my heart. I purged X Factor, Big Brother and Strictly from my lower duodenum recently and I've never felt better. I'll most probably dip into BBC1's latest offering, The Voice, simply to savour how cheap and pointless the BBC can make a talent search look, keeping in mind they won't dare hire a pricey wind machine and will probably make do with interns bringing hairdryers from home.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/feb/04/dancing-on-ice-grace-dent">Continue reading...</a>Dancing on IceTelevisionTelevision & radioCultureEntertainmentReality TVSat, 04 Feb 2012 00:05:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/feb/04/dancing-on-ice-grace-dentPhotograph: Ken McKay/RexDancing On Ice. Photograph: Ken McKay/RexPhotograph: Ken McKay/RexDancing On Ice. Photograph: Ken McKay/RexGrace Dent2012-02-04T00:05:38ZStrictly Come Dancing: Grace Dent's TV ODhttps://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/sep/17/strictly-come-dancing-grace-dent
'While we wait for the SCD celebs and their hard-bodied dancing partners to finish rehearsals, it's time to take the show's subtext out for a twirl'<p>Following last Saturday's spangly <strong>Strictly Come Dancing </strong>launch show – featuring a youthful Dolly Parton (who resembles an albino velociraptor in HD) – we must wait a further two rehearsal weeks to see the actual show. For those in the dark about Strictly, the series always begins with Bruce Forsyth (a tap-dancing octogenarian boasting a hairpiece made of finest skinned meerkat) lining up the chunky, wobbly celebs and the hard bum-cheeked professional dancers, and then pairing them up. Typically, naughty Bruce reads out each dancing duo while hinting heavily that tons of illicit sex will be going on. Everyone in the audience loves this and guffaws loudly, aside from the celebs' hapless, long-suffering, soon-to-be upgraded partners, who rictus grin into their plastic tumbler of putrid BBC boxed chardonnay.</p><p>Until Christmas, the main game of Strictly is for the celeb and their dancing partner to slip into a Stockholm syndrome-style tryst where the celeb feels angry, humiliated and legally committed to spend time with this exercise freak, typically leading to a mutual infatuation. The celeb loses loads of weight, most of their marbles and begins swanning into the BBC Television Centre wearing lilac Pineapple Dance Studio leg warmers and a towelling headband mumbling about "knowing my value on the Strictly tour" and "being pushed to new levels of joy" – which could mean "on the dancefloor" but we all secretly hope means "in the Novotel adjacent to the west London flyover with their mobile phone switched off."</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/sep/17/strictly-come-dancing-grace-dent">Continue reading...</a>TelevisionTelevision & radioCultureStrictly Come DancingReality TVBBCEntertainmentFri, 16 Sep 2011 23:06:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/sep/17/strictly-come-dancing-grace-dentPhotograph: Chris Jackson/GettyTess Daly and Bruce Forsyth. Photograph: Chris Jackson/GettyPhotograph: Chris Jackson/GettyTess Daly and Bruce Forsyth. Photograph: Chris Jackson/GettyGrace Dent2011-09-16T23:06:17Z